Batterson was born in
Bloomfield, Connecticut. He was prepared for college but did not attend (he was later awarded honorary degrees of M. A. from both
Yale University and
Williams College); instead he immersed himself in his father's business in quarrying and importing stone, briefly studied law, then opened a granite and marble company. Batterson spent several years in Egypt, and was recognized as such an authority of Egyptology, he became honorary secretary of the
Egyptian Exploration Fund. While in Europe he studied art and wrote poetry. In England he was impressed with the record and success of the Railway Passenger Assurance Company, and resolved to gather a group of progressive men to launch a similar venture in the United States, the Travelers Insurance Company. He remained in charge until his death in 1901. Before the
Civil War he designed and built the
monument to Gen.
William J. Worth, New York City (1857). after the war Batterson supplied many cemetery and civil monuments. As chairman of the Connecticut State War Committee in the Civil War he served as a construction consultant for the Union. As Batterson was a leading supplier of granite and other construction stone, President
Abraham Lincoln appointed him building contractor for the
Library of Congress building in Washington, D.C. Batterson also constructed the Masonic Temple in New York City and the
Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford, designed by
Richard M. Upjohn. He also constructed the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Building, Hartford, the Mutual Life Insurance Building, New York, the Equitable Life Insurance Building, New York, and the
William K. Vanderbilt residence
Marble House,
Newport, Rhode Island. He had granite quarries at
Westerly, Rhode Island, and at
Concord, New Hampshire, and introduced mechanical granite polishing. Batterson traveled to Italy to find talented sculptors to work on his designs for bronze and stone sculptures for national cemeteries and
Civil War monuments. Many of the largest Civil War monuments were built by Batterson, including
The American Volunteer at
Antietam National Cemetery (
Carl Conrads, sculptor,
George Keller, architect); and the ''
Soldiers' National Monument at Gettysburg National Cemetery (Randolph Rogers, sculptor, George Keller, architect). He erected the granite statue, Alexander Hamilton'', in
Central Park, New York City (
Carl Conrads, sculptor); the
Thayer Monument at West Point, New York (
Carl Conrads, sculptor); the Texas Heroes Monument in Galveston, Texas (
Louis Amateis, sculptor); and the Halleck Monument at San Francisco (
Carl Conrads, sculptor). He joined forces with
Elizabeth Colt to make the
Wadsworth Atheneum a free public institution; on 16 October 1880, he was honored at the Atheneum by ex-President
Ulysses S. Grant for his contributions to historic preservation. He founded
Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, where he is interred and where many of his granite monuments may be seen. He married Eunice Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan Goodwin, of Hartford. He died on September 18, 1901, in Hartford, Connecticut. Batterson Hall at the
University of Connecticut commemorates his name. ==Notes==